Partials

It was worth it, Kira swore, though it broke her heart to think it. Two hundred. She looked up at Tovar, still not sure she trusted him enough to explain why they’d be willing to go to such an extreme. They were still prisoners, after all; he’d offered them nothing but information, and promised them nothing at all.

“Who’s left of the senators?” asked Xochi. “Apparently my mother, but who else?”

“It might be more accurate to ask what’s left of the Senate,” said Tovar. “The few senators who lived through the night declared a state of emergency, declared martial law, and filled the city and the countryside with soldiers from the Grid. Elections to replace the fallen have been postponed until ‘a state of peace and equilibrium is reached,�� which is an awful lot of syllables for ‘never.’ It’s totalitarianism in all but name.”

“Yes,” said Kira, “but who are we talking about specifically? Which senators?”

“Oh, you know,” said Tovar with a shrug, “the real hardliners, like Kessler and Delarosa. Hobb’s a weasel, so of course he’s in there as well, and the one from the Grid—Senator Weist. That’s how they got the military’s support so quickly.”

“The same ones who’ve been running this from the beginning,” said Kira. Her skin went cold, and she gripped Xochi’s hand for support. “They planned this entire thing—Samm, and the explosion, and even the riot. This isn’t a provisional government in the wake of a national disaster, this was a planned and calculated coup.”

“They couldn’t have planned Samm,” said Marcus. “They had no idea you were going to go out and get him.”

“Who is Samm?” asked Tovar.

“The Partial,” said Kira. “And they didn’t have to plan his capture, just what to do with him afterward. They’d probably been planning some kind of power grab for a while, and then when we showed up with Samm, we gave them the means to pull it off.”

“They’re only in charge until the city gets back on its feet,” said Jayden, “and they’re only doing it because of the riot we caused. What else were they supposed to do?”

“Do you actually believe that?” asked Xochi.

“They responded too quickly,” Kira protested, feeling the rage build up inside of her. It was so familiar now, so much a part of her, that it filled her easily. “They had to have a plan already in place, to deal with exactly the kind of situation we forced them into—we started a riot, and they went to Plan F or whatever and seized the whole island. Even when we thought we were stopping them, they were still ready for us.”

“They’re trying to save the species,” said Jayden. “Yes, they’re being extreme about it, but maybe that’s the only way to make it work—a solid grip on the island, with a single vision to lead it and army to enforce it.”

“Remember where you are,” said Tovar.

“I don’t like it any more than you do,” said Jayden, “but they don’t have the—” He stopped, glanced at Kira, and started again. “For all they know this is the only way to save us from RM: to take the Hope Act to its natural extreme and ranch us like cattle until someone’s born immune.”

“Delarosa used to be a zookeeper,” said Kira softly, thinking of all her friends still trapped inside the city.

Tovar snorted. “No kidding?”

She nodded. “She saved endangered species. I guess we’re just another bunch of rare white rhinos.” Kira swallowed her rage and took a long, deep breath. “Mr. Tovar,” she said, looking up to meet his eyes. “We need to get back to East Meadow.”

“Then you’re crazy,” he said.

“Crazy or not,” she said, “we need to go. And you need to take us there.”

“Then you’re crazy and stupid,” said Tovar. “In three days, when all my forces are gathered, we’re going to launch our biggest offensive yet. It’s like your friend said—when the entire species is at stake, people are willing to go to extremes. We’re going to take that government down and you do not want to be anywhere near it when we do.”

“Three days?” Kira’s mind raced. “That might be all we need. If you can get us there without being seen, actually inside the city, we might not need a war at all.”

Tovar frowned. “I’m not an assassin, Kira, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Of course not.”

“And I’m not a martyr either. Getting you or anyone else into East Meadow would be extremely dangerous. When I die it’s going to be for a pretty damn good reason.”

“A good reason is not the problem,” said Kira, and held up the syringe. “We have the cure for RM.”

Tovar stared at it, his mouth open, then laughed out loud. “And you expect me to believe that?”

“You believed all the crazy bad stuff,” said Xochi, “why not the crazy good stuff, too?”

“Because crazy bad stuff is well within the realm of my experience,” said Tovar. “Curing RM is in the realm of magical pixies and talking dogs that piss whiskey. It’s impossible.”

“It’s real,” said Marcus, and looked at Kira. “We’ll stake our lives on it.”

“Suppose it is,” said Tovar. “What do we do with it? Walk into town, hold it in the air, and wait for the magical pixies to make everything right again?”